Fresh Tracks

It was a great day laying fresh tracks for miles & miles yesterday morning!

Laying fresh tracks in the backcountry. Wheeee!

We got started just after sunrise on Saturday and hit the trails on Peak 7. There was a nice layer of new snow atop the packed/used trails close to the trailhead. But, we were first out, so had the 2-5 inches of fresh snow all to ourselves to lay fresh tracks for miles & miles. Come along for a video glimpse into the fun.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

But, eventually, we outskied where people had been on previous days and found the trail far back (and up) untouched with the occasional powder cache to plow through!

Blazing through about 12 inches of untouched powder. Fun!

We also ran into one short uphill stretch with extremely deep snow. When it is this deep and uphill, I have to help propel me along. Well, when the silly human has to help, he also has to take breaks to catch his breath. Here we are at one quick break before I prepare to get the skis moving again. My pals don't understand why I paused :)

"You ok back there?" asks gentle Jack.
"Yeah, what's the holdup?" asks curious Rudy.

We skijored a loop on this outing, so there was not a point for "turnaround, roll around". That's ok, about midway through the outing as I called out a "left", both Jack & Rudy did a "stop, drop & roll" before continuing on - silly kids.

Stop.... Drop.... and ROLL!!!

Another great morning, right guys?

"FUN!!!!" exclaims the happy kids.

As I said, the majority of the day was spent laying fresh tracks in 2-5 inches of fresh snow; it was only a few stretches far & high away from the trailhead that we got slowed by deep snow: 8.8 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 19 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 9 days on the trails covering 58.7 miles with 5150 feet of elevation climbed.

Powder Day

Fun "shot from the front" of happy Jack & Rudy towing me to the finish of this morning's skijor outing!

Whee!

How about the fun video counterpart of this shot. Come along for the video reel of Jack & Rudy towing me to the finish. Notice how we are even able to go through a narrow gate opening near the end of the clip as my partners slow on verbal commands to get the human through :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

As you can tell by the prior photo and video, it was a powder day on Peak 7 for our skijor outing. Love kicking up powder behind my athletes!!! The tracks you see to our left are our own "out tracks" as we did and out & back on this trail. But Jack & Rudy had no interest in reusing the track they set on the way out, they wanted to plow through powder both directions.

POW go Jack & Rudy blasting through powder.

Now for the video counterpart to the prior photo. Come along for a view into the hard working, powder plowing sled dogs!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

For the day's humor (Jack & Rudy always provide at least one humorous event, often more :), we have two photos capturing the essence of powerful, yet mellow Jack and powerful, but wild Rudy...

First, we have Jack getting distracted by rodents off trail. He does his usual "rodent lunge" off trail to search for rodents.

"Rodent lunge!" demonstrates Jack.
"Hey, bro, what do you have?" asks Rudy.

Then we have Rudy doing his patented, high arching rodent dive to join Jack in the search for rodents under the snow.

"Incoming!!!!!" demonstrated Rudy with his high arching swan dive.

There you have a great look into the difference between mellow Jack & wild Rudy :)

We only had time for a short outing this morning due to other commitments; but we were not going to miss a powder day!!! Short run, long run, all deserve end of run treats!

"I can taste them in anticipation!" says slurping Jack.
"So much fun today!" adds happy Rudy.

A quick but very fun powder morning: 5.1 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 17 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 8 days on the trails covering 49.9 miles with 4350 feet of elevation climbed.

Dive

Rudy's first rodent dive of the 2022/2023 skijor season!

"Incoming!" demonstrates Rudy doing one of his patented rodent swan dives.
"Nice form little bro!" adds onlooking Jack.
Rudy may be younger than Jack but he is by no means little :)

We returned the the Harrison Creek Trail at Rabbit Ears Pass again yesterday morning. On Sunday morning, the conditions were "good to great". On Monday morning, I can summarize as follows:

Too many of these.....

Off road vehicle taking hunters into the backcountry.

Led to too much of this...

Yuck! We skijored this section of trail 24 hours early and it was
snow covered and perfect.

Oh well, we expect trail damage from vehicles this time of year. We did find the occasional nice stretches to trot & ski comfortably:

Ah, a really good stretch of trail!

But, the hazards were ugly and frequent. None of Jack, Rudy or I were ever comfortable going very fast as we kept encountering trail carnage along the trail and around almost every blind corner. That's ok, Jack & Rudy settled into a gentle trot the entire outing. It's better to "go gently" than not go at all! Come along for a quick video glimpse into our 7.8 mile skijor stroll:

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Turnaround time and, you guessed it, synchronized snow angels from the silly kids:

Turnaround... Roll Around!

Time for the end of run team meeting :)

"Ah, thanks!" says Rudy appreciating my little head/ear rub.
"Me next!" adds happy Jack.

Not the best outing due to deteriorating conditions; but we were on snow in October! 7.8 miles traveled with a top speed of 15 MPH and 600 feet of elevation climbed.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 7 days on the trails covering 44.8 miles with 3850 feet of elevation climbed.

Unfortunately, the season is on pause until we get some new snow to freshen up the trails. But, the forecast is for that to happen Thu or Fri! Pray for Snow!